Lorenzo

There was a time in my life that seeing Elissa’s car excited me.

If her car was somewhere, it meant she was there. The more I thought about it, there were not very many encounters that I had had with Elissa that were not sexual. We were not friends. We used to fuck and that was about it. We tried a few times to date, but it never ended up working because again, we weren’t friends. We didn’t like each other like that—and there weren’t enough things we wanted to discuss with each other for any sort of real friendship to be able to develop. Was she interesting as a person? Perhaps. But I had never really seen that side of her. It just wasn’t right. It wasn’t her fault—and it wasn’t my fault. It was just the truth. There was no use trying to force something when it was literally being rejected by both parties.

She had used to do this shit where she would wait for me in my house and she would leave her clothes in a trail, leading to wherever it was that she was waiting for me, naked. She used to have a key, but she didn’t anymore. I had asked for it back and had the locks changed since Isa and I had gotten together. We had had some fun together in the past, but it was over now. The sight of Elissa’s very expensive silver Mercedes outside my house right then, sent a shiver up my spine. She was at the house—and she was not alone. She was there with Isa. The two of them were not friends. They were not anything; there was no way that the woman had come over to see my wife. If she had, it was definitely not because she wanted to congratulate her on the baby.

Something was not right.

I circled the block and parked a few houses down. I stepped out of the car and called Isa’s phone. Nothing. I tried again. She wasn’t ignoring the calls, but she was not answering the phone. There was no way that she couldn’t have torn herself from Elissa, even for a second to answer a phone call? Something was wrong.

Walking up to the house, I stayed low. There were two ground-floor windows that I would have been able to see the women through if they were downstairs. I held my breath, peering through the window. I saw Isa, she was sitting in a chair. Elissa was stalking around the room with a gun in her hand.

Oh shit.

I ducked down before she had a chance to see me. I had to do something. How long had she been here? Was she waiting for me? Was she trying to hold Isa hostage in order to get to me? What was happening?

My mind raced and I felt fear, true fear, sit in the pit of my stomach. Isa was in trouble. She was in trouble and it was my crazy ex who was responsible for it. She was talking, a lot of what she was saying was muffled, but I caught some of it. She was talking about Isa’s dad. I didn’t want to believe it, but it was hard to deny something that you are hearing with your own two ears.

I had known this woman for years. I would go as far as to say that we were friendly, not friends but definitely not enemies. This changed everything. The moment she first opened her mouth to disrespect my wife had changed everything. Maybe she didn’t think it was that serious, but I had a feeling she wasn’t in her right mind at the moment. I had to stop her.

I decided to go around back.

Going in through the front door would either startle her and make her pull that trigger, or it would just be me playing right into her trap, whatever that might be. I needed to get a jump on her so that she couldn’t ambush me and so she couldn’t do anything rash.

I had my gun with me so that was good. I didn’t want to shoot Elissa, but I would if she forced me to do that. Why did she have to go and do all this? Why was ‘no’ such a bitter pill for her to swallow? If Isa got hurt or was already hurt, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. There was no way this was going to end in casualties. The back door led into the kitchen. I could go in and slide into the great room where they both were unnoticed if I watched where she was in the room and was careful.

From inside the house, I heard the conversation they were having a lot more clearly. Elissa was shouting while Isa’s voice was calm and measured. I felt the powerful urge to take my gun out and just stop Elissa right there. I was a good shot, but shooting at Elissa was not an option when Isa was so close to her. She sounded crazy, who knew what she would do if she heard the gun but I ended up missing. Isa hung in the balance and she was absolutely not going to suffer because of this. Because of me.

If Elissa was a guy, I would have killed her already, no question. If she was a man, she would have been history the first time she decided to try my wife and me. I watched Elissa circle around the room like she was a vulture, waiting to pick the meat off Isa’s bones. How was I ever attracted to her?

I sighed. We all make mistakes. I put my gun back in its holster and moved towards the great room. I was going to get her. I just hoped she wouldn’t get Isa first.